The rich­ness and depth of the col­lec­tions of the Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity Archives are the focus of “‘The Best Old Place of All’: Trea­sures From the Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity Archives,” a new exhi­bi­tion at the See­ley G. Mudd Man­u­script Library open­ing Fri­day, Feb. 20.

The exhi­bi­tion coin­cides with the year­long cel­e­bra­tion of the 50th anniver­sary of the estab­lish­ment of the Uni­ver­sity Archives and fea­tures some of the most his­tor­i­cally sig­nif­i­cant doc­u­ments and objects from the col­lec­tion along­side seldom-seen trea­sures. It will run through Fri­day, Jan. 29.

“The goal of this exhi­bi­tion is to illus­trate the University’s long and impres­sive his­tory and, in doing so, to cel­e­brate and reflect upon the vital role of the Uni­ver­sity Archives in pre­serv­ing and doc­u­ment­ing that record,” said Uni­ver­sity Archivist Dan Linke.

Fea­tured in the exhi­bi­tion are doc­u­ments, pho­tographs and objects from the Uni­ver­sity Archives cov­er­ing the time of the institution’s found­ing to the mod­ern era. A page from the 1783 min­utes of the Board of Trustees con­tains the trustees’ request that George Wash­ing­ton sit for a por­trait so that they might replace the work of King George that was destroyed in the Bat­tle of Prince­ton. Nearby, a draft of then-University Pres­i­dent Woodrow Wilson’s vehe­ment argu­ment on the mat­ter of the loca­tion of the Grad­u­ate Col­lege hints at another bat­tle fought on cam­pus more than a cen­tury later.

Many of the objects cap­ture the ever-changing nature of stu­dent life and aca­d­e­mics at Prince­ton. Early course exam­i­na­tions, class sched­ules and a set of hand­writ­ten stu­dent lec­ture notes from the time of John With­er­spoon (who was Uni­ver­sity pres­i­dent from 1768 to 1794) exem­plify how, though times may have changed, the pur­pose of the typ­i­cal Prince­ton stu­dent has remained largely the same. One notable excep­tion to that credo can be seen in the form of a so-called “cheat­ing cuff,” which hear­kens back to the days before the Honor Code. Early 20th-century foot­ball pro­grams and pho­tographs from Tri­an­gle Club shows point to extracur­ric­u­lar pursuits.

In addi­tion to paper doc­u­ments and pho­tographs, “‘The Best Old Place of All’” draws upon the exten­sive mem­o­ra­bilia col­lec­tion of the Uni­ver­sity Archives. Items such as canes, clay pipes and the Reunion jacket of Adlai Steven­son — the influ­en­tial politi­cian and diplo­mat who grad­u­ated from Prince­ton in 1922 — are all a part of the University’s her­itage. Other objects such as the dis­cus that 1897 alum­nus Robert Gar­rett threw in the 1896 Athens Olympics and a black­ball box used dur­ing eat­ing club “bicker” selec­tions rep­re­sent some of many curiosi­ties that have found their way into the archives in the last 50 years.

“Whether it is an auto­graph book with Woodrow Wilson’s inscrip­tion or a fresh­man ‘dink’ cap, all of this mate­r­ial con­tributes to under­stand­ing of what Prince­ton was and how it came to be,” said Linke. “While some things remain the same, the insti­tu­tion has under­gone tremen­dous change, and where we are today is not what we will be in the days ahead.”

As a spe­cial fea­ture of the exhi­bi­tion, the 1748 char­ter of the Col­lege of New Jer­sey will be on view to the pub­lic Feb. 20–21, May 29–30 and Oct. 10. The two-foot-wide parch­ment bear­ing the seal of the province of New Jer­sey is the found­ing doc­u­ment under which the Uni­ver­sity oper­ates even today. Rarely taken out of climate-controlled stor­age, the char­ter is a mag­nif­i­cent piece of Prince­ton his­tory, accord­ing to Linke.

The Uni­ver­sity Archives offi­cially was estab­lished in Octo­ber 1959 by Pres­i­dent Robert F. Goheen to col­lect records cre­ated by Uni­ver­sity fac­ulty, staff and stu­dents. These records doc­u­ment Uni­ver­sity admin­is­tra­tion, the devel­op­ment of aca­d­e­mic depart­ments and pro­grams, as well as stu­dent life. Housed in the See­ley G. Mudd Man­u­script Library since 1976, the Uni­ver­sity Archives con­sists of more than 15,000 lin­ear feet of records and ser­vices more than 5,000 researchers each year.

In addi­tion to the exhi­bi­tion, activ­i­ties planned in the fall to rec­og­nize the Uni­ver­sity Archives’ anniver­sary include a his­tor­i­cal film fes­ti­val and an open house and tour. A spe­cial issue of the Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity Library Chron­i­cle devoted to the Uni­ver­sity Archives also will be pub­lished later this year.

Linke noted that the num­ber of records and other mate­ri­als col­lected by the Uni­ver­sity Archives — from within Prince­ton as well as from alumni, fam­i­lies and out­side donors — con­tin­ues to grow. He said the anniver­sary cel­e­bra­tion is intended to raise fur­ther aware­ness about its role in pre­serv­ing the University’s history.

“We want to be part of the life of the Uni­ver­sity and doc­u­ment what goes on here,” Linke said. “In the course of our day-to-day work, peo­ple some­times don’t think what they’re doing is his­tor­i­cal. But there are shelves of books show­ing that peo­ple are inter­ested in what hap­pens at Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity in all its aspects — not only what the president’s office or admis­sion office is doing, but what’s hap­pen­ing on the play­ing fields, what’s hap­pen­ing in stu­dent life or how under­grad­u­ate life is changing.”

“‘The Best Old Place of All’” is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon­day through Fri­day and until 8 p.m. Wednes­day. For the three Sat­ur­days that the Uni­ver­sity char­ter will be on view, the hours will be 9 a.m. to noon on Feb. 21 and May 30, and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 10. For addi­tional infor­ma­tion, call the Mudd Library at (609) 258‑6345.

More images from the exhi­bi­tion are included below: